Enjoy the next chapter!
"When's lunch?" Horace asked his companions.
Will groaned. "We just had breakfast, Horace…," he told him.
Horace frowned. "You can't really call stale bread and diluted soup a proper meal," he protested.
Halt glanced sidelong at his two young friends. "If we're going to find Alyssa, we can't stop every hour for a meal break," he pointed out.
Horace shrugged and slumped in his saddle. They had left Redmont at the break of dawn, and now they were travelling to almost every nearby town, looking for some signs of Will's apprentice. They were now at the border of Araluen.
As they rode over the crest of a hill, another village came into view. Yet again, they confronted it, and asked around. As expected, none of the citizens had an inkling of the whereabouts of Alyssa. The tedious process was done over and over. But no one had seen nor heard of Alyssa.
Finally, they stopped to set up camp as the sun touched the horizon. Will gratefully dismounted, along with Halt and Horace. Will sighed. "I'm starting to lose faith…," he said hopelessly.
Halt shook his head. "I'm afraid that we may never find her. Alyssa couldn't have left Araluen. Even on horseback, at the greatest speed, it's impossible to leave Araluen in one night. Her disappearance has left me baffled."
"Skandia!" Horace suddenly said, hope shining in his eyes. Halt and Will looked at the warrior, confusion clear in their faces
"Skandia? What the devil does Skandia have to do with-" Will started, then it dawned on him. "Horace, that has to be it! Alyssa must be on a boat to Skandia," he said excitedly.
Halt held up his hand to stop any more outbursts. "Will, that could very well be possible. But...why would she sneak out, in the middle of the night, to go board a Skandian wolfship?" he asked reasonably.
Will shrugged. "She's stubborn and hard-headed. Who knows what her motives are?" he replied.
Halt made vague gestures with his hands. "Stubborn or not, I know for a fact that she is extremely loyal to the Rangers. She knows how much chaos it could cause if she just disappeared like that. Foul play must be involved; most likely a form of blackmail. If that's the case, I wouldn't be surprised. The Ranger Corps has lots of vital information that an outsider could put to good use." he reasoned.
Will frowned. "Yes, but surely one would be smart enough to avoid a Ranger? After all, people think that we practice dark magic," he challenged.
Halt shook his head. "If it were a grown male Ranger, yes. But Alyssa's still young and in her apprenticeship, and they think that because she's female, that she would be the weakling out of us. Although, that's definitely not true," he added meaningfully.
The more they thought about it, the more realistic the idea was. Horace and Will nodded in agreement.
"Question is," Horace began. "Who's the one blackmailing her? And how did they get into contact with her? I mean, Will is almost always at the cabin with her, right?"
Will pursed his lips in thought. "There has been occasions where I've left her at the cabin by herself. Mind you, I've only ever left her for a few days at most. She's eighteen, and if she's responsible to take on the duty of a Ranger, she is more than capable of being alone for a few days. Besides, she has just about a year until she graduates to a full-fledged Ranger."
Horace sighed and sat down on a nearby tree stump. All the mystery-solving and tactical thinking was making his head throb.
Will turned to Halt. "Now that we got an idea of the cause of Alyssa's disappearance, what's our next plan of action?" he asked.
Halt stroked his beard thoughtfully. "First of all, let's get a word out to the Ranger Corps. They can keep an eye and ear out for any clues about Alyssa. But really, I'm not sure that there's anything we can do about it at this moment. We can't search every nook and cranny. Until we get more information, we can't continue like this."
Horace and Will had to agree. Without enough information, they were running around Araluen like a headless chicken.
"Well, now that we got that settled, I'll start a fire. I'm starving," Horace announced, dusting off his hands as he stood.
Will snorted. "You're always hungry, Horace."
Horace grinned at the young Ranger. "Yup," he agreed, popping the "p".
Hope you guys liked that chapter! Sorry it's not that exciting, and it's really short, but the next chapter will be better ^.^
Feedback and suggestions much appreciated! Thanks for reading!